Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 Report (3)

Andrew Dismore: Following the publication of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 Report what action will you take to restore Londoners’ faith in the London Fire Brigade?

The Mayor: The Grenfell Tower Inquiry (GTI) phase 1 report has highlighted a series of significant issues for the London Fire Brigade. While every single person who attended that night did so to save lives, institutional failures meant that the overall response to the disaster was not good enough.
Dany Cotton will retire at the end of December, and, subject to the London Assembly confirmation hearing process, Andy Roe will become London Fire Commissioner on 1 January 2020. Andy brings a wealth of experience to the role, including from the Grenfell Tower fire, at which he took the decision to revoke the ‘stay put’ advice minutes after becoming incident commander. One of his first priorities will be to meet with the communities affected by the fire, to begin to rebuild their trust in the leadership of the London Fire Brigade.
I have been clear that I will do everything within my power to ensure that the Inquiry’s recommendations are implemented. To provide complete transparency, I will be publishing regular updates on progress against each recommendation.

Community Initiatives to tackle Domestic Abuse

Unmesh Desai: What work are you undertaking to work with local businesses so that they can spot the signs and report Domestic Abuse?

The Mayor: Tackling domestic abuse and VAWG remains one of my key priorities as Mayor of London, I am committed to ensuring that victims of this terrible crime are identified earlier and receive the appropriate response. Any effective response must include the wider community which is why I and my Night Czar, introduced the Women’s Night Safety Charter to raise awareness of VAWG and encourage businesses to sign up and do their bit to help make sure women, who are disproportionately affected by VAWG, feel safe.
This commitment means taking responsibility and getting my own house in order, which is why City Hall are developing a HR Policy that includes VAWG so that staff are well placed to spot the signs and respond appropriately.
My staff are also progressing the Good Work Standard across London to ensure that organisations are clear that VAWG must not tolerated in the workplace.

Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 Report (4)

Andrew Dismore: What realistic lengths does the London Fire Brigade need to go to ensure an incident like the Grenfell Tower fire never happens again?

The Mayor: The Grenfell Tower Inquiry (GTI) phase 1 report has highlighted a series of significant issues for the London Fire Brigade. While every single person who attended that night did so to save lives, institutional failures meant that the overall response to the disaster was not good enough.
Dany Cotton will retire at the end of December, and, subject to the London Assembly confirmation hearing process, Andy Roe will become London Fire Commissioner on 1 January 2020. Andy brings a wealth of experience to the role, including from the Grenfell Tower fire, at which he took the decision to revoke the ‘stay put’ advice minutes after becoming incident commander.
Like me, Andy is committed to making the transformational change required at the Brigade. With input from his team, I will be publishing regular updates on progress against each of the GTI recommendations, to help ensure that this tragedy is never repeated.

Phase 1 Grenfell Fire Report (1)

Caroline Pidgeon: With the Phase 1 of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry highlighting multiple errors and oversights by the London Fire Brigade, what actions are you taking to ensure these multiple failures are remedied, to ensure such mistakes and errors never occur again during a major incident?

The Mayor: The Grenfell Tower Inquiry (GTI) phase 1 report has made a series of recommendations aimed at ensuring nothing like the tragedy at Grenfell Tower ever happens again. I accept all the report’s recommendations, and I will do everything within my power to ensure they are implemented.
Dany Cotton will retire at the end of December, and, subject to the London Assembly confirmation hearing process, Andy Roe will become London Fire Commissioner on 1 January 2020. Andy brings a wealth of experience to the role, including from the Grenfell Tower fire, at which he took the decision to revoke the ‘stay put’ advice minutes after becoming incident commander.
The GTI report is clear there are significant lessons for London Fire Brigade, and I will be working with Andy to make the changes needed. I will be publishing regular updates on progress against each of the recommendations, consulting with the community and other stakeholders – including the London Assembly – throughout the process.

Knife Arches 2

Tony Devenish: How many Tube stations, if any, currently have knife arches? How has this number changed each year since 2015/16?

The Mayor: The MPS do not hold this data.

Knfie arches 3

Tony Devenish: For each of the years Nov 16 to Oct 17, Nov 17 to Oct 18 and Nov 18 to Oct 19, please provide the number of knife arches deployed in tube stations, broken down by station.

The Mayor: The MPS do not hold this data.

Fatigue Audit IA 13744 (1)

Caroline Pidgeon: Point 4.0 (page 9) of the 2014 internal audit of TOL's Croydon Tram operation (IA 13 744), contains information that an outside audit by a company called "AbsTracked Solutions” found seven 'weaknesses' in TOL's safety management processes.
AbsTracked Solutions audit conclusion on TOL's safety management system was 'adequate', not the higher classification of 'well controlled’ given by TfL’s Internal Audit IA 13744. Did TfL, during the course of fieldwork for IA 13 744 or at any point subsequently ask what those seven weaknesses identified by AbsTracked Solutions were? What actions, if any, did TfL undertake to ensure that Tram Operations Limited corrected these seven weaknesses before 9 November 2016?

The Mayor: Your statement that the Abs Tracked Solutions audit conclusion on Tram Operations Limited’s safety management system was ‘adequate’ is based on a misreading of the Transport for London (TfL) audit report. The relevant sentence in IA 13 774 section 4.0 on Audit Arrangements states as follows: “The audit report for March 2014 was evidenced and found to be adequate.” This refers to the judgement of TfL Internal Audit that the report was adequate to fulfil the requirement for effective audit arrangements.
Yes, during the fieldwork TfL’s auditor would have seen what the seven weaknesses referred to in the audit were and the resulting actions required.As IA 13 774 states, they were evidenced on TOL’s audit findings tracker and the status of external audit findings were reported periodically to FirstGroup plc’s Board.
The conclusion of the audit was that TOL were managing the actions. TfL did not track these to closure as this was being undertaken by TOL.

ULEZ enforcement (3)

Leonie Cooper: What has the income from ULEZ enforcement been allocated to so far?

The Mayor: Income received from the ULEZ is reinvested by Transport for London into improving the transport network – including its roads, Cycleways, buses and the Tube – and making London’s air cleaner.

Stalking

Susan Hall: For each of the years Nov 16 to Oct 17, Nov 17 to Oct 18 and Nov 18 to Oct 19, please can you provide the number of instances of stalking recorded by the police, broken down by stalking type along with a further breakdown of outcomes?

The Mayor: Please attached the data attached in response to the question.

Santander bikes 2

Tony Devenish: For each of the years Nov 16 to Oct 17, Nov 17 to Oct 18 and Nov 18 to Oct 19, please can you provide how many Santander bikes have been stolen?

The Mayor: The number of reported stolen bikes (reported to the Police and a crime reference number provided) are:
Year
Quantity
Nov 18 – Oct 19
95
Nov 17 – Oct 18
18
Nov 16 – Oct 17
3
There has been a significant increase in the number of bikes stolen over the periods provided. Sadly, this is in line with bike crime across London. Transport for London (TfL) understands that this is also a trend that has been seen across other Cycle Hire schemes in Europe and the US.
TfL continues to work with the Metropolitan and City Police to understand the increase. This has led to an increase in witness statement requests and arrests being made. CCTV has also been installed at some of the stations with the highest numbers of missing bikes.
TfL has issued communications advising customers to look after their bikes, not leave them unattended and ensure they are returned securely.

Control unit integration

Andrew Dismore: What progress is being made with London Fire Brigade control unit integration in ‘role to rank’ and what problems have there been with the plan?

The Mayor: The Command Unit Integration project is being managed by London Fire Brigade’s (LFB) Role-to-Rank (R2R) team following the implementation of R2R on 15 October 2019. The R2R project team is currently developing the Command Unit Integration paper which will be taken through the governance process and, once approved, the changes will then be implemented. In the meantime, work will progress so that the changes can be implemented once approval is given.
As part of the new arrangements, LFB is considering additional options for the type of replacement Command Unit, which requires additional modelling work to be carried out. The procurement process has commenced and the contractor, Babcock, has been provided with the full technical specification for tender. LFB will be able to refine the exact requirement prior to issuing the final specification of the vehicles to the successful bidder. The IT software solution is being sourced separately through LFB’s IT department.

Overhead cable fires

Andrew Dismore: How many times has an overhead rail cable caught fire in each year since 2010?

The Mayor: The table below shows the number of incidents on the London Overground network where an overhead rail cable has been recorded as catching fire. Most of the incidents were classed as small smouldering incidents, rather than large scale fires. There were no incidents of overhead rail cable fires on Transport for London (TfL) Rail or London Trams, which are the only other TfL services that have overhead cables.
TfL continues to work with Network Rail, which is responsible for the cables in these incidents, to ensure minimal disruption to the network.
Financial Year
Number of incidents
2009/10
2
2010/11
2
2012/13
5
2013/14
3
2014/15
2
2016/17
5
2017/18
2
2018/19
2
2019/20
2
Total
25

Measuring actions on policing and crime

Caroline Pidgeon: With the recent report mapping your strategies highlighting that 84% of your actions on policing and crime are not measurable, what actions will you take in order to review if any changes can be made to allow for better scrutiny and transparency when it comes to oversight of your actions on policing and crime?

The Mayor: The Mayor and MOPAC is scrutinised more regularly than any other PCC. A monthly report is provided for each Police and Crime Committee meeting which details all the activity of the Deputy Mayor and decisions taken. The Deputy Mayor is then questioned by the Committee on her role to hold the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police to account. In addition to this, the London Assembly question the Mayor on a monthly basis and MOPAC responds to approximately 100 questions on all areas of policing and crime. Both forms of scrutiny are extremely transparent and performed in the public domain.
On an annual basis MOPAC publishes an annual report, which clearly sets out the achievements of the preceding 12 months. This report is published on MOPACs website, and the Police and Crime Committee scrutinise the Deputy Mayor on her actions.
A wide range of data dashboards and a quarterly performance report are available on MOPACs website which summarises performance against the Mayor’s Police and Crime Plan and allows for public scrutiny of progress.

Heathrow Community Noise Forum

Caroline Russell: In September and October 2019, you and your team received an invitation to participate in the Heathrow Community Noise Forum. The purpose of this forum is to discuss: “the planning and delivery of Heathrow’s future airspace changes, along with the steps we are taking to reduce the noise impacts of our operations.” Why have you not accepted this invitation?

The Mayor: I remain firmly opposed to Heathrow expansion. The hearing of my judicial review appeal against a third runway concluded in October and I await a positive judgement from the courts. I also raised my fundamental concerns about the expansion proposals and their impacts – including noise – in my submission to the expansion Development Consent Order consultation. The full response is available on TfL’s website: https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/aviation.
I have noted the invitation to participate in the Heathrow Community Noise Forum. After careful consideration we have decided not to attend, not least because we have existing channels for engagement with Heathrow on expansion and to address the concerns about noise that inevitably stem from the airport’s proposals. Nevertheless, I encourage Heathrow to make use of its Community Noise Forum to fulfil its responsibility to listen to and respond directly and meaningfully to communities’ concerns.
The established engagement channels with Heathrow, where TfL can seek to gather information and hold the airport to account, consist of scheduled bilateral meetings, notably a Senior Officer Steering Group and a series of topic-specific Working Groups. We are also liaising with a number of interested local authorities including the London Borough of Hillingdon as the airport’s host authority and the Heathrow Strategic Planning Group (HSPG), which includes some of the local authorities in the vicinity. Representing noise concerns is a key element of these discussions, as it has been in our response to Heathrow consultations and our legal case against expansion.